Analysis Of Harmonic Language In Messiaen’s Harawi

Olivier Messiaen(1908-1992). French composer, organist and teacher."Harawi",the song of love and death is written by Messiaen in1945, this is a song cycle for soprano and piano,"Harawi" is the first part of Messiaen’s "Tristan Trilogy"."Harawi",the cycle’s title is taken from the Quechua,an ancient language spoken in the Andean lands before the Spanish domination and regionally still alive today.The word "Harawi" known to Spanish speakers as "yaravi" designates a song about a fated love that ends in the death of both lovers.The work which concerns in love involves a great amount of Messiaen’s important techniques,for instance,Modes of limited transposition Color chords;a great added values、non-retrogradable rhythms、rhythmic canons、 personnages rhythms and so on;the use of birdsong;and the lyrics of the song cycle is the surrealist poetics which is written by Messiaen.This dissertation is composed of three chapters.In the first chapter,the meticulously microcosmic study is focus on the harmonic language of soprano and piano part which combines with the Pitch-Class set theory.The second chapter is based on the analysis of the first chapter and conclude the harmony characteristics of this work.In addition,the other music elements as the form and the rhythmic techniques,and even the interactional connection of them is also analyzed in this chapter.In the third chapter,the center study is the Messiaen’s musical aesthetic idea——various kinds of symbolism、poetic significance and the surrealism,then this chapter also discusses the ways how these aesthetic ideas present and implied in this work.The aesthetics of Surrealism seemed to provide Messiaen with both a logical consolidation of his thought and the creative impetus to experiment beyond his musical boundaries, at last the harmonic language own the enchantment of Surrealism.